In order to realise a light source that provides light of a colour which is not a primary colour of its constituent light-emitting elements, a control method for combining the available light components is necessary. The control method can be quite simple or even deterministic if traditional lighting equipment, such as incandescent or fluorescent lamps, are utilised. The situation is more complicated when solid-state lighting means, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), are used, since these will exhibit a non-constant colour output. The emitted colour can in fact be influenced by changes in the junction temperature and the current, by ageing and contamination. Moreover, the outputs from two LEDs of the same type will also differ as a consequence of manufacturing defects and their mountings. As the light output starts to wane from the predefined colour point owing to the said factors, the colour point of the light output of the light source will deviate. Hence, the colour point of the light source has to be stabilised via a control loop.
For the purpose of monitoring the light output of one or more light sources, it is common practice to use photodetectors, such as RGB sensors or true-colour sensors, having the same sensitivity as a standard observer or approximating these characteristics. Alternatively, flux sensors are used, possibly in combination with one or more temperature sensors. Based on the photodetector output signals, a resulting colour point of the light output of the light source is determined and compared with a target colour point in order to adjust the driving signals to the light sources if needed.
When the photodetectors sense the light output, there may be interference from other light, such as ambient sunlight or light from artificial sources. It is necessary to remove such elements from the detector signal, so that only the light output of one light source at a time is fed into the control loop. It is known in the art how this difficulty can be overcome if the individual light sources are made distinguishable by modulating each of them in a unique way.
However, photodetectors suffer from similar inconsistencies as light sources do. The effects discussed above, especially the variations between individual components, will lead to a discrepancy between measurements of different detectors. For this reason, when two nominally identical lighting devices according to the described technology are set to produce the same target colour point, it may well happen that the respective light colours will differ visibly to a human eye. This shortcoming is of little consequence as long as the lighting devices are installed separately, but will be an annoying problem when a number of similar light sources are installed for the illumination of larger rooms, such as lobbies or hallways, and a uniform colour temperature is desired.